Thumbs down Open Carry in Durham North Carolina-Illegal Detainment!
Stopped handcuffed detained by three Durham police while walking down a street, open carrying, for "felony check" after informing them that I had a valid pistol permit. They ejected a cartridge in the barrel onto the ground which I lost. They placed me in handcuffs behind my back and in the back of a cruiser, stating that "you are not being arrested, just detained." Before this, one officer stated "you should be carrying that concealed." I informed him that I did not have a concealed carry permit, had never applied for one and did not want to, for cost and that it really does nothing more for you, but did look into it. He then stated, "ok where is your gun permit?" I told him that I used it for the purchase of the gun. They said that was getting "smart with them." They said to prevent this from occurring over and over again, that CCW was the only way to go! I was put in the back of a cruiser while they ran my name for a "felony check." This was after the sheriff's department ran a NCIS check the day before, and a gun store, a NCIS check one week ago and also after being robbed at gunpoint myself, a couple of weeks ago! Before this, numerous Durham County Deputy Sheriffs and numerous Durham Police officers, drove past me up and down the street I was walking on. I suppose, to attempt to scare me into making a perfectly legal act, illegal be "forcing me to hide a perfectly openly carried and legal gun" A few weeks ago, I was robbed by gunpoint and other of Durham's police dept. responded that time with a dog, but did not find the robber. For the next two days, Duke University, nearby, students were robbed on the same street!!!!!!!!!! This just goes to show you that not only don't your local police know the laws, they did not have the "probable cause" to stop me, making this a very clear illegal stop. How they attempted to get out of it, was saying that "they could consider charging in that instance with terror with a gun to the public, a misdemeanor." I informed them that the gun was never referred to by me to anyone while walking nor did it ever leave the holster, thus could not have been pointed at anyone. Hysteria, if in fact, someone did call, is terribly different from "terror." I am a US Citizen by birth and have owned guns since I was 18 y.o. Seems that they wanted to "argue" over a perfectly legal carry or at least wanted to show me that they "could" stop me if they wanted to. But in essence, they were the ones who were illegal, I was perfectly legal. What a shame. If this continues, only criminals will be the ones with guns! However, rights are rights, one does not have to have a gun pointed at them before they are legal to carry a gun themselves!!! An utter form of harassment in my book.
